Lexham Insurance Group (LIC)

Unacceptable customer behaviour policy

LIC Group are committed to dealing with all customers fairly and impartially, and to providing a high standard of service, but accept that whilst most customers are satisfied with our services, this isn’t always the case.

In times of trouble or distress, customers may act out of character – in a small number of cases, customers may behave in an unacceptable manner.

LIC Group take their duty to ensure the safety and welfare of its staff seriously and will support staff to be able to work without the fear or threat of abuse, harassment, discrimination, or violence, and this policy will detail what to do when staff are experiencing unacceptable behaviour from customers.

What is unacceptable behaviour?

Unacceptable behaviour means acting in a way that is unreasonable, regardless of the level of someone’s stress, frustration, or anger. It may involve acts, words or physical gestures that could cause another person distress or discomfort.

There are other behaviours that may be considered abusive, aggressive, or unreasonable, in line with this policy.

Whilst it is impossible to detail every instance of unacceptable behaviour, some examples are listed below;

Aggressive or abusive behaviour

This is behaviour or language that could cause someone to feel afraid, threatened, bullied, or abused. It may include:

• physical violence or threats of physical violence

• bullying or intimidating behaviour

• derogatory remarks relating to somebody’s race, sex, gender, age or sexuality

• comments relating to disability, perceived gender, religion, belief, or any other personal characteristic

• offensive gestures

• shouting

Inappropriate behaviour

Inappropriate behaviour causes an individual to feel uncomfortable or belittled and can include:

• insulting or degrading language

• inappropriate banter

• innuendo

• malicious allegations

Unreasonable demands

Customers may make requests, or place demands on our services that we cannot reasonably accommodate. Depending on the nature of these they might be classed as unreasonable demands and the parameters for this will depend on the circumstances and each case should be considered on its own merit.

The behaviour of customer who persistently contacts us about the same issue can amount to unreasonable demand. Such behaviour takes up a disproportionate amount of our time and resources and can affect our ability to provide a service to others.

Unreasonable demands can include, but isn’t limited to:

• the volume of correspondence they generate or send, including sending the same or similar requests repeatedly

• seeking an outcome that cannot be achieved, including persistent rejection of decisions made

• repeated and frequent contact without giving enough time to respond to previous correspondence

• not following our complaints procedure

• insisting on speaking to someone who is not available or is not the appropriate person (such as the Chief Executive)

• adopting a ‘scatter gun’ approach: pursuing parallel complaints about the same issue with different members of staff

How we manage unacceptable customer behaviour

LIC Group will not tolerate unacceptable customer behaviour. Where unacceptable behaviour is identified, depending on the circumstances, LIC Group can take a range of actions including:

• ending calls

• not replying to abusive e-mails or letters (correspondence will still be reviewed to ensure no new issues have been raised by the customer)

• restricting access to LIC Group services

• refusing to offer insurance and / or cancel an existing policy

• referring hate crimes or incidents to the police

• referring matters to the police where other criminal offences have been threatened or committed

Before any action is taken, customers will always be warned that they are behaving in an unacceptable way so that they can change their behaviour.

Restricting access

If a customer continues to behave in an unacceptable manner, LIC Group can temporarily or permanently place communication restrictions on the customer. These restrictions may include:

• limiting our contact to written correspondence

• limiting phone calls to specific days and/or times

• limiting our contact to a specific staff member

• limiting contact to a specific e-mail address or telephone number

• not providing further responses to a customer’s contact if the issues have been previously considered

Other limitations may be considered appropriate depending on the circumstances.